Dear Jane: Thank you for all the information you provide on a regular basis, and now for moderating the list. I have a bit of a mystery that I wondered if anyone could help me with. My father was working on our family history before he died and he had listed my great-grandparents as being John Cairns (maybe spelled Kearns) and Elizabeth Pogue, of Clones, Co. Monaghan. My aunt says they were John and Mary Cairns of Newbliss, Co. Monaghan. Family legend says that great-grandmother had worked as cook at the Rossmore estate. Both my father and aunt had a detailed list of birthdates for the five sons who survived infancy. They moved to Belfast sometime in the 1880's or 1890's and evidently my grandparents had died sometime before 1900, when my grandfather was 10-12 years old. Unfortunately, they don't show up in the vital records for either Clones or Monaghan. There is a marriage of a John Kearns and Elizabeth Malone in Clones but the family structure and names are so different that it can't be the same family. Then I thought I would try tracking back my grandfather, as the 1911 Census gives his birthplace as Belfast. I wrote to the records office, giving his exact birth date in 1888, and they wrote back and said there was no entry with those particulars anywhere between 1886 and 1890. The only thing that might help is that they all - John Cairns, and several of his sons - worked for the railway. I am wondering if anyone has done research at the Railway archives in Dublin and might have some suggestions as to how to go about this from a distance? Also, any ideas as to why my great-grandfather and his family wouldn't be listed in the vital records when my father was so sure that they came from Clones? And any ideas about where else to look? Any and all suggestions and information would be appreciated. Regards, Rosemary Cairns Yellowknife, NT, Canada